The three-day selloff, organised by the owner of the world’s largest rhino farm, will go ahead after a last-minute legal tussle pushed its start back two days.

“There are delays, no hiccups. It starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at two o’clock (1200 GMT),” said auction organiser John Hume, who owns 1,500 rhinos on his farm north of Johannesburg.

Hume has stockpiled six tonnes of rhino horns and wants to sell 264 pieces weighing a total of 500 kilogrammes (1,100 pounds).

He says he harvests the horns by tranquilising the animals and dehorning them — a technique he says is humane and wards off poachers.

Activists opposed to the sale fear it will fuel trafficking and undermine a 40-year global ban on the rhino trade.

Animal protection charity Humane Society has opened an online petition urging the government not to issue permits to potential horn buyers.

“Any domestic trade in rhino horn undermines enforcement and demand reduction efforts to battle wildlife trafficking in the rest of Africa, China (and) Vietnam,” the charity said.

The divisive sale comes after South Africa’s top court lifted an eight-year moratorium on the domestic trade of rhino horns in April.

A last-minute legal challenge delayed the auction for two days, but Hume was given a permit on Monday and bidding is set to begin.

Environment Minister Edna Molewa said the government was taking steps “to ensure that we have closed any possible loopholes that could pave the way for a circumvention of (international) regulations”.

– No ‘blood horns’ –

====================

Speaking on Monday, the minister said an audit of all existing rhino horn stockpiles was underway to “prevent the smuggling of illegally-obtained horns out of the country”.

Private rhino owners say so-called “blood horns” will not enter the market, as each horn is micro-chipped and their origins can be DNA-traced.

Breeders believe open trade is the only way to stop poachers from slaughtering the endangered animals.

They argue that the auction helps to promote “sustainable” use of resources and raise funds for protecting and conserving the rhino.

South Africa is home to around 20,000 rhinos, or about 80 per cent of the worldwide population, but in recent years the country has suffered record slaughter by poachers.

Rhino horns are highly prized in Asia, where they are estimated to fetch up to $60,000 (50,000 euros) a kilo ($27,250. 22,700 euros a pound) on the black market, exceeding the price of gold or cocaine.

They consist mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails, and are sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and other diseases — as well as a purported aphrodisiac — in Vietnam and China.

Van’s Auctioneers, who will conduct the auction, have not set an opening price for bids, but bidders need to pay 100,000 rand ($7,570) to register.

Pelham Jones, chairman of the Private Rhino Owners Association, told AFP that potential buyers would be people of Asian descent who live in South Africa and “could potentially be consumers of the product”.

Commodity speculators based anywhere in the world will also be able to buy “but may not export the horns,” he added.

Any registered buyer will be able to bid, but may not collect the horns until they obtain permits.

The weather observatory said the storm would pass within 100 kilometres (62 miles) of Hong Kong Wednesday morning, “posing considerable threat” to the territory.

It warned of strong winds, rough seas and possible flooding due to heavy rain.

Flag carrier Cathay Pacific said almost all its flights between 6:00 am and 5:00 pm local time Wednesday would be axed.

Hong Kong Airlines has also cancelled all its flights from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm and other carriers have already posted cancellations to their schedules.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority said passengers should confirm their flights before heading to the airport.

“As typhoon Hato gradually approaches, flights at the Hong Kong International Airport will be affected all day tomorrow,” it said.

Cathay said wind speed and direction was “severely impacting flight operations” in a statement on its website, although it added operations remained normal Tuesday night.

The observatory raised its Typhoon 3 warning Tuesday evening, triggered when wind speeds are expected to hit between 41 and 62 kilometres per hour.

It predicted it would raise it to a Typhoon 8, the third-highest warning level, around midnight.

Hong Kong is regularly hit by typhoons between July and October.

The city saw its strongest storm in 1962 when the eye of typhoon Wanda passed over and gusts of 284 kilometres per hour were recorded.

It killed 130 people and destroyed thousands of residential huts, leaving 72,000 people homeless.

Since then, Hong Kong has adapted to typhoons, including making sure its highest commercial skyscrapers can sway in the wind, and they now rarely cause deaths.

Heather Redfern, a spokeswoman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, said a high-speed train ran into another one that was stationary and unoccupied at the 69th Street Terminal in the city’s Upper Darby suburb.

“All 42 people on board the train that was moving were injured and all appear to be non life-threatening,” she said, adding the cause of the crash just after midnight was being investigated.

A passenger named Ronnie told local news channel NBC10: “My face hit the wall, put a big hole in the wall and I went straight down and I blacked out.

“There was blood everywhere. The driver is all banged up and there was this one girl bleeding out of her face pretty bad.”

Thirty-six people were left with minor injuries when two New York subway train cars careened off the tracks in June.

The US rail network suffers from chronic underfunding and accidents are not infrequent, particularly on the busy East Coast corridor.

Firefighters were digging with their bare hands to pull 11-year old Ciro, the last of three brothers buried in the debris, about 13 hours after the quake struck.

“There was silence for a while, they were tired. Then they began speaking again and we drew comfort from that,” said Luca Cari, a firefighter spokesman.

A woman was killed in Casamicciola, in the north of the small tourist island, by debris that fell from a church, while the body of another was spotted in the rubble of a collapsed house, local media reported.

A handout photo made available by the Italian Fire Department shows Italian firefigters saving a child, whose name is Mattias, from the rubble of his house in Ischia, Italy, 22 August 2017.  // EPA PHOTO

Firefighters broke into applause as a dusty Mattias, 7, was pulled free from under the bed where he had taken refuge. His 11-year old brother Ciro was conscious and talking to rescuers as they dug through to him.

Emergency workers had previously recovered the boys’ seven-month- old brother, Pasquale, crying but alive, after hours of effort overnight after their pregnant mother sounded the alarm.

“In Casamicciola, a building collapsed and three people were pulled alive from the rubble — two women and a man,” the head of the local department of civil protection, Angelo Borrelli, said at a press conference early Tuesday.

Two small communes, Casamicciola and neighbouring Lacco Ameno, had borne the brunt of the quake, he added.

The quake hit the northwest of the island at 8:57 pm (1857 GMT), at a depth of just five kilometres.

Italian authorities first put Monday night’s quake at a 3.6 magnitude, but later revised it upward to 4.0 magnitude.

The main earthquake was followed by 14 smaller aftershocks, Borrelli said.

Several buildings in the area collapsed while others had large, ominous cracks.

Thirty-nine people were injured, one seriously.

 – ‘A horrible experience’ –

The Rai News 24 television channel broadcast images of holidaymakers by their cars with their bags packed, with other people sitting in their gardens or outside their houses.

Many cars were waiting at the Ischia port eager to head back to Naples.

The quake struck just days ahead of the first anniversary of the 6.0 magnitude quake that killed nearly 300 people in and around Amatrice in central Italy. In October 2016 and January 2017 three other earthquakes hit the same region.

Francesco Peduto, head of Italy’s National Geologists Association, on Tuesday slammed shoddy construction and a lack of earthquake prevention measures, saying a 4.0-magnitude quake should not have brought down buildings.

Italian firemen and emergency workers search through rubble of a collapsed house in Ischia, on August 22, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

“It’s frankly extraordinary that people continue to die for earthquakes of this size,” he said.

The quake response has benefited from the presence of emergency responders who were on the island to fight the forest fires that have plagued Italy this summer, local media said.

“I was on the couch watching TV. Blackout, shaking, something fell on my head. I scream, my mother grabs me and we ran outside,” one witness wrote on Twitter.

Teams of firefighters, including two units specialised in extracting people from rubble, were quickly mobilised, said Bruno Frattasi, who oversees the fire department.

Ischia’s only hospital was also hit and had to be partially evacuated, with five patients transferred to another medical facility by helicopter.

Restaurants were packed and many stores were still open when the shaking began, witnesses said on Twitter.

“A horrible experience, everything was shaking, plunged into darkness, houses were collapsing… a nightmare,” one wwrote

Ischia is often hit by earthquakes, with its worst dating back to July 1883, when an estimated 5.8-magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people.

Italy straddles the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, making it vulnerable to seismic activity when they move.

Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were sent to prison last Thursday for their leading role in the initial protest that sparked the months-long Umbrella Movement of 2014 — demonstrations and street blockades calling for democratic reforms.

Their jailing has been slammed by international rights groups and politicians and has prompted accusations that the independence of Hong Kong’s courts has been compromised under pressure from Beijing.

Tens of thousands turned out in protest Sunday.

Wong was at High Court Tuesday as part of another case dating back to the Umbrella Movement.

He is one of 20 activists charged with contempt of court for violating an order to clear the Mong Kok protest camp — scene of some of the most violent clashes during the demonstrations.

In closing arguments prosecutor Victor Dawes said that by obstructing bailiffs the defendants had intended to “interfere with the administration of justice” which amounted to criminal contempt.

Dawes added that the large crowd meant there were safety and public order concerns.

Crowds of protesters gathered around workmen trying to tear down road barricades in November 2014 which were part of the Mong Kok camp, leading to scuffles with police who made arrests and pushed them back.

Defence lawyer Hectar Pun said the injunction was to remove obstructions, not people, from the road.

“The plaintiffs or plaintiff agents or bailiffs…are not authorised to clear human beings from the area,” he told the court.

 – ‘Determined attitude’ – 

Other activists sentenced on contempt charges have received up to three-month prison terms.

Supporters packed the courtroom and the areas outside.

Before the case began, Veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung, known as Long Hair, shouted: “They have Rimsky Yuen — you have the Hong Kong people!”, referring to the city’s justice minister at the centre of the controversy over the jailings.

Joshua and fellow defendant Raphael Wong, who is also in custody, responded with a cheer from the dock, surrounded by four uniformed guards.

Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” arrangement, guaranteeing freedoms unseen on the mainland, but there are growing concerns those rights are disappearing as an assertive Beijing tightens its grip.

The government has vehemently denied there was political interference in the decision by the Court of Appeal last week to overturn previous non-custodial terms for Wong, Law and Chow. The court jailed them for six to eight months after a sentencing review brought by the department of justice.

Prosecutors have filed a raft of cases against pro-democracy activists with fears that more will be jailed in the wake of last week’s judgement.

Lester Shum, another prominent Umbrella Movement activist and one of the defendants in court Tuesday, said before the hearing that he felt relaxed about his case, adding he was inspired by the “determined attitude” of other jailed activists.

The hearing was adjourned due to an approaching typhoon and is set to resume Wednesday.

He charmed the crowd as he greeted and took selfies with admirers at Putrajaya Equestrian Park on Sunday.

Prince Abdul Mateen, who is sixth in line to the Brunei throne, is representing his country in the equestrian polo events at the 29th Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017).

He is among the Brunei royals listed in Brunei’s polo team – which include his elder sister Princess Azemah Ni’matul Bolkiah, 33, Pengiran Muda Bahar Bolkiah, 36, Pengiran Muda Abdul Qawi, 43 and Faiq Jefri Bolkiah,19.

The prince won the hearts of many after a video of the 26-year-old royal exiting a tent to greet and take selfies with a crowd of cheering spectators went viral.

The impromptu meet-and-greet took place after the Brunei Equestrian polo team’s practice match against Singapore on Sunday evening.

Many women were heard cheering and screaming his name, with some holding placards, when the prince made his way to the crowd.

The smiling prince shook hands and took selfies with the crowd.

“Who knew out of sudden a prince could come out from a tent and walk straight away in front of you,” commented Twitter user @Hanaaa_95.

“Prince of Brunei was so kind. No wonder people all over the world love him,” commented Twitter user @lily_breath.

Several netizens also commented on Prince Abdul Mateen’s good looks.

Prince Abdul Mateen has a strong social media following of 509,000 on Instagram, and he has posted a number of photos since arriving in Kuala Lumpur for the SEA Games.

He has also been featured on several publications, such as GQ Thailand, Elite Daily and Mashable, labelling him as a “hot royal” and “handsome prince”.

The Bruneian polo team will be facing the Malaysian team today.

Thailand’s Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, 30, will also be representing her country in the dressage portion event of the equestrian competition between Aug 21 and 23.

Our very own Terengganu Ruler Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin bagged a gold medal in the equestrian endurance event at the 2017 SEA Games on Sunday.

Its director-general, Admiral Zulkifli Abu Bakar, said certain foreign reports stating that the operation was being led by Singapore and the collision between the USS John S. McCain and oil tanker MV Alnic MC occurred in Singaporean waters were not true.

He said the accident happened at 5.30am some 4.5 nautical miles off the coast in Teluk Ramunia.

“It is in our waters, so we are leading the SAR operations. There is no sign of the missing sailors so far,” he told reporters at the MMEA headquarters here yesterday.

He said various assets have been deployed by the MMEA, Royal Malaysian Navy and maritime police in the operation.

“The search zones have been divided into four sectors, each comprising a square of five-by-five nautical miles,” he added.

Admiral Zulkifli said assets from Singapore were also in the area conducting their own search.

The collision took place close to Pulau Batu Putih, the focus of a territorial dispute between Malaysia and Singapore.

To this, Admiral Zulkifli said, “now is not the time for arguments”. “We will communicate with the Singaporean authorities,” he assured.

He said the Indonesian navy was also sending two ships, KRI Parang and KRI Cucuk, to help out. He said he did not want to speculate on what caused the collision, but noted that the region where it took place experienced intense maritime traffic.

“It is the entrance into the Singapore Straits and Malacca Straits, which sees over 80,000 ships passing through each year,” he pointed out.

Admiral Zulkifli said both ships have been directed to Singapore’s Changi port for repairs and investigation.

“USS John S. McCain suffered a gash on its port side while it is unclear if the Liberian registered MV Alnic MC had any damage,” he added.

Besides the 10 missing sailors, five were injured in the incident but are reportedly stable and being treated at a Singapore hospital.

The McCain was heading to Singapore for a routine port visit after conducting a sensitive freedom-of-navigation operation last week by sailing near one of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea.

Bullet train trips between Beijing and Shanghai will get faster from that date when Fuxing bullet trains run at 350 kilometres per hour, bringing passengers in China the world’s fastest commercial trains, China Railway Corp said.

Currently, the trip between the two metropolises, on one of China’s busiest rail lines, takes from four hours and 49 minutes to six hours, the difference arising because of varied numbers of stops being made.

China reduced its bullet trains’ maximum speed to about 300km/h in August 2011 for safety reasons.

The newest generation bullet train, the Fuxing, has been in operation since June 25. On July 27, railway authorities completed testing of the Fuxing, which will allow the restoration of the maximum speed to 350 km/h.

Passengers will have more arm and leg room and free Wi-Fi, with better-placed charging plugs for phones and computers that are located near the armrests instead of below the seats, China Railway Corp said.

In addition, comprehensive and scientific assessments have shown the rail line meets the requirements for bullet trains run at that high speed, and given the ample preparations made, rail authorities and experts have guaranteed that Fuxing trains are capable of the high speed, according to the company.

“Restoring bullet trains’ top speed to 350km/h is a sign of the maturity of China’s high-speed railway technologies,” Liu Xu, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told Xinhua in a previous interview.

Fuxing trains, the product of Chinese railway standards and technologies, have improved safety, comfort and energy conservation, according to China Railway Corp.

Following their debut on the Beijing-Shanghai line, they will be put into operation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area on Monday, serving 10 stops in the region, including Tianjin, Baoding and Shijiazhuang, the company previously said.

There, Fuxing trains will run at a maximum of 300km/h.

The longest tunnel – 8,755 metres – on the Harbin-Mudanjiang high-speed railway was expected to be finished on Sunday, marking a major step for the northeastern high-speed rail, China Central Television reported.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson ordered commanders to set aside time, perhaps “one or two days” within a week, for crews to sit down together after the destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker off Singapore.

And this will be carried out in parallel to the start of “comprehensive review” of practices.

“As you know, this is the second collision in three months and the last of a series of incidents in the Pacific theater,” Richardson said.

“This trend demands more forceful action. As such, I have directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world.”

The admiral did not rule out some kind of outside interference or a cyber attack being behind the collision, but said he did not want to prejudge the inquiry and his broader remarks suggested a focus on “how we do business on the bridge.”

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, on a visit to Jordan, said Richardson’s “broader enquiry will look at all related accidents, incidents at sea, that sort of thing. He is going to look at all factors, not just the immediate one.”

Ten US sailors were still missing after Monday’s collision between the McCain and the Alnic MC in the busy shipping lanes of the Singapore Strait, near the Strait of Malacca, which left a large hole in the USS John McCain’s hull.

A major search involving ships and aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia and the US was launched for the missing sailors.

Search efforts continued Tuesday with aircraft from the amphibious assault ship USS America joining the hunt, which was focused on the area in which the collision occurred, the navy said.

The USS America — which arrived in Singapore Monday — was also providing support to crew members from the McCain, helping to drain water from the warship and repair systems damaged in the accident

The badly damaged destroyer limped into port in the southeast Asian city-state of Singapore under escort Monday after the dramatic pre-dawn accident.

– ‘Full transparency’ –

=======================

Analysts said the accident, which came after June’s collision off Japan involving a US warship, raised questions about whether the US Navy was overstretched in Asia as it seeks to combat Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The US Navy said there was “significant damage to the hull” of the vessel, which led to flooding of crew sleeping areas, machinery and communications rooms.

A helicopter took four of the injured to a Singapore hospital for treatment, while the fifth did not need further medical attention, the navy said.

The warship had been heading for a routine stop in Singapore after carrying out a “freedom of navigation operation” in the disputed South China Sea earlier in August around a reef in the Spratly Islands, sparking a furious response from Beijing.

The damaged vessel is named after US Senator John McCain’s father and grandfather, who were both admirals in the US navy.

McCain himself, who as a naval pilot was shot down during the Vietnam War and held prisoner, welcomed the review.

“I agree with Admiral Richardson that more forceful action is urgently needed to identify and correct the causes of the recent ship collisions,” he said.

“I expect full transparency and accountability from the Navy leaders as they conduct the associated investigations and reviews.”

President Donald Trump tweeted: “Thoughts and prayers are w/ our @USNavy sailors aboard the #USSJohnMcCain where search and rescue efforts are underway.”

The tanker involved in the collision, which was used for transporting oil and chemicals and weighed over 30,000 gross tonnes, sustained some damage but no crew were injured, and Singapore said there was no oil pollution.

In June, seven American sailors died when the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship in a busy channel not far from Yokosuka, a gateway to container ports in Tokyo and nearby Yokohama.

The dead sailors, aged 19 to 37, were found by divers in flooded sleeping berths a day after the collision tore a huge gash in the ship’s side.

A senior admiral announced last week that the commander of the destroyer and several other officers had been relieved of their duties aboard their ship over the incident.

Both the USS John McCain and USS Fitzgerald are part of the US Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka.//AFP

A grand phenomenon of this magnitude certainly deserves to be documented, which is why the space agency is using its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to capture its essence.

According to a recent NASA press release, people along the line of “totality” are urged to wave their hands and cheer as the LRO’s camera captures an image of the Moon’s shadow on Earth.

“I’m really excited about this campaign because it is something so many people can be a part of,”  Andrea Jones, LRO public engagement lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said. “So much attention has been focused on the lucky folks who will get to experience eclipse totality, but everyone in an entire hemisphere of the Earth can wave at the Moon as LRO takes our picture!”

NASA also made it known that the Moon will be far enough from Earth during the eclipse, which will make the resolution of the images at only 2.5 miles per pixel.

“While people should not expect to see themselves in the images, this campaign is a great way to personalize the eclipse experience,” said Noah Petro, LRO deputy project scientist at Goddard. He added that the camera wouldn’t be able to capture people or buildings, but would still cover continents, clouds and large surface features.

Although people are invited to celebrate the extremely rare occurrence, NASA advised those who will be in the 70-mile-wide path to use proper eclipse glasses when staring at the Sun—even as it begins to vanish.